JASON CLARK / COURIER & PRESS
Will MacKenzie hits his tee shot on No. 18 during the third round of the United Leasing Championship at Victoria National Golf Club in Newburgh, Ind., Saturday. MacKenzie shot a 68 on Saturday to put him in a tie for second going into the final round of the tournament Sunday.

2012 Jason Clark

EVANSVILLE - The Evansville Convention & Visitors Bureau has agreed to sign on as a sponsor of the United Leasing Championship golf tournament again in 2013.

The bureau's board of directors voted unanimously Tuesday to be a $50,000 sponsor of next year's golf tournament. That is the same amount the group paid for this year's event.

The United Leasing Championship is a tournament affiliated with the Professional Golfers' Association of America. The event was held in the last week in June at Victoria National Golf Club in Newburgh. This year's tournament was the first in a three-year contract.

Bob Warren, CVB executive director, said the golf tournament resulted in 1,000 to 1,200 local hotel bookings, which is fewer than he hoped to see. Occupancy rates for Vanderburgh County hotels overall dropped 2 percent in June compared to June 2011. Room rates include occupancy taxes that help fund the CVB, which supports local travel and tourism.

Board members said the event is worth supporting even though it did not generate the number of hotel bookings they had hoped for.

Board member Donna Leader, who serves on the CVB board's marketing committee, said the golf tournament's presence could position the Evansville area to host other large-scale events.

"I look at it as an investment in the future, even though it did not do exactly what we anticipated," Leader said.

The bureau's $50,000 sponsorship for this year's event was used to produce three television ads that aired during tournament week.

"We got some exposure in outside markets that we might not have otherwise have gotten," board member Mike Roeder said.

The CVB now owns that advertising footage and can reuse it for other purposes.

Update on trip to scout athletic facilities

The CVB is in the early stages of researching an eight-field baseball/softball complex at a proposed cost of $10 million to $13 million. A location has not been identified, but Warren has said the Roberts Stadium site is not being considered.

Warren told the board that a group of five or six people, including board members and CVB employees, will travel Sept. 17-19 to visit sports facilities in Kentucky (Elizabethtown and Bowling Green); Tennessee (Jackson and Chattanooga); as well as Southaven, Miss.